4 ms·

Do you think Elon is giving meaningful input on the design of robots, rockets or brainchips?

throwaway51081 2y ago
Yes, I do. People working with him in SpaceX have said so. And in the other cases, his leadership, financial, business, product and marketing input is still a necessary part of the project that directly influences the technical decisions.
- croes 2y ago
  Doesn't need him to be on site.
- Turing_Machine 2y ago
  He has a degree in physics and one in economics, both from Penn.
  - malfist 2y ago
    What does a degree in physics or economics have to do with brainchips?
    - Turing_Machine 2y ago
      You're kidding, right?
reducesuffering 2y ago
Andrej Karpathy has directly worked with him. Listen to what he says: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33703617 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33703617
- khazhoux 2y ago
  People belittle his technical ability because it hurts our ego to admit someone could exceed us at all the things we specifically value in our corner of the world: successful products, massive innovation, big brain smarts, money... Nietzsche: "The vanity of others offends most, when it offends our own vanity." No one here is threatened when Dave Grohl pumps out his 30th hit album, or when Steph and Lebron wipe the court with all the other players. But the idea that this Elon guy is not only richer, but also smarter and more ambitious and more innovative than any of us? That's unfair, it can't be so!!
  - croes 2y ago
    >but also smarter Smarter? Have you seen his Twitter timeline? He falls for nearly every fake news and conspiracy theory. We aren't threatened by Dave Grohl because he doesn't use his social media outreach to promote right wing conspiracy BS.
    - throwaway51081 2y ago
      Many famous scientists, engineers or industrialists who moved the world forward in the past were racist or total Nazis. Today, many otherwise extremely smart people exhibit the same behavior as Musk, you just see it publicly in his case. I see it a lot in high level academia circles. The antivax and other conspiracies during Covid got a lot of help from very intelligent people, in my state the leader of the highest rated university got involved in that, for example. You shouldn't mistake his Twitter feed for straight and full approval... He often trolls or merely thinks there might be some basis of truth in something, and sometimes he blurts out in anger. Again, in his case you just see it publicly. Not defending him, it's weird and terrible and took a sharp decline after his breakup. But it's not so unusual.
    - khazhoux 2y ago
      Yeah he’s an idiot on twitter. But he’s still smarter than both of us. Or I guess I shouldn’t include you in that, in case your day job happens to involve conducting high-level business and engineering reviews of manned spacecraft like Elon does.
- croes 2y ago
  There is a difference between understanding something if you get it explained and developing it at first. Many understand Einstein's theory of relativity but few would have came up with. He isn't some kind of Tony Stark who builds things himself.

Yes, I do. People working with him in SpaceX have said so. And in the other cases, his leadership, financial, business, product and marketing input is still a necessary part of the project that directly influences the technical decisions.

croes 2y ago
Doesn't need him to be on site.
Turing_Machine 2y ago
He has a degree in physics and one in economics, both from Penn.
- malfist 2y ago
  What does a degree in physics or economics have to do with brainchips?
  - Turing_Machine 2y ago
    You're kidding, right?

reducesuffering 2y ago

Andrej Karpathy has directly worked with him. Listen to what he says: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33703617 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33703617

khazhoux 2y ago
People belittle his technical ability because it hurts our ego to admit someone could exceed us at all the things we specifically value in our corner of the world: successful products, massive innovation, big brain smarts, money... Nietzsche: "The vanity of others offends most, when it offends our own vanity." No one here is threatened when Dave Grohl pumps out his 30th hit album, or when Steph and Lebron wipe the court with all the other players. But the idea that this Elon guy is not only richer, but also smarter and more ambitious and more innovative than any of us? That's unfair, it can't be so!!
- croes 2y ago
  >but also smarter Smarter? Have you seen his Twitter timeline? He falls for nearly every fake news and conspiracy theory. We aren't threatened by Dave Grohl because he doesn't use his social media outreach to promote right wing conspiracy BS.
  - throwaway51081 2y ago
    Many famous scientists, engineers or industrialists who moved the world forward in the past were racist or total Nazis. Today, many otherwise extremely smart people exhibit the same behavior as Musk, you just see it publicly in his case. I see it a lot in high level academia circles. The antivax and other conspiracies during Covid got a lot of help from very intelligent people, in my state the leader of the highest rated university got involved in that, for example. You shouldn't mistake his Twitter feed for straight and full approval... He often trolls or merely thinks there might be some basis of truth in something, and sometimes he blurts out in anger. Again, in his case you just see it publicly. Not defending him, it's weird and terrible and took a sharp decline after his breakup. But it's not so unusual.
  - khazhoux 2y ago
    Yeah he’s an idiot on twitter. But he’s still smarter than both of us. Or I guess I shouldn’t include you in that, in case your day job happens to involve conducting high-level business and engineering reviews of manned spacecraft like Elon does.
croes 2y ago
There is a difference between understanding something if you get it explained and developing it at first. Many understand Einstein's theory of relativity but few would have came up with. He isn't some kind of Tony Stark who builds things himself.